wriggle
Americanverb (used without object)
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wriggles,
present (3rd person singular)
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wriggled,
past participle, past
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wriggling
present participle
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to twist to and fro; writhe; squirm.
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to move along by twisting and turning the body, as a worm or snake.
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to make one's way by shifts or expedients (often followed byout ).
to wriggle out of a difficulty.
verb (used with object)
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wriggles,
present (3rd person singular)
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wriggled,
past participle, past
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wriggling
present participle
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to cause to wriggle.
to wriggle one's hips.
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to bring, get, make, etc., by wriggling.
to wriggle one's way through a narrow opening.
noun
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wriggles
plural
verb
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to make or cause to make twisting movements
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(intr) to progress by twisting and turning
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(intr; foll by into or out of) to manoeuvre oneself by clever or devious means
wriggle out of an embarrassing situation
noun
-
a wriggling movement or action
-
a sinuous marking or course
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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wrigglernoun
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outwriggleverb (used with object)
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unwriggledadjective
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wrigglyadjective
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wrigglinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wrigglesimple
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wrigglessimple
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have wriggledperfect
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has wriggledperfect
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am wrigglingprogressive
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are wrigglingprogressive
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is wrigglingprogressive
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have been wrigglingperfect progressive
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has been wrigglingperfect progressive
Past
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wriggledsimple
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had wriggledperfect
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was wrigglingprogressive
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were wrigglingprogressive
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had been wrigglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wriggle
1485–95; < Middle Low German wriggelen (cognate with Dutch wriggelen ), frequentative of *wriggen to twist, turn, akin to Old English wrīgian to twist; see wry
Explanation
To wriggle is to squirm and twist quickly. Think of how hard it is to hold a rambunctious puppy as it wriggles in your arms. Wriggle sounds a lot like wiggle, and the two words very nearly mean the same thing. There is a subtle difference, though: when you wriggle, you twist, turn, or bend as you move. When you wiggle, you make more of a back-and-forth motion. In fact, these two near-homonyms have completely different etymological sources. While wiggle stems from a Germanic root meaning "cradle," wriggle's root means "to turn or bend."
Vocabulary lists containing wriggle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In other dramatic scenes, protesters were seen holding on to one another as they were dragged to waiting buses -- only for them to later wriggle out from the driver's seat or the rear window.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
When it comes to snake handlers, you must prepare for tales that wriggle free of containment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Clubs in the 2026-27 season also have to spend at least £5.4m, dubbed the new salary cap floor - this leaves less wriggle room if you wanted to bring in one player on big money.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Then, the males wriggle up and twist and wrap around them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
She smiles at me then, knowing that since Toño has gone I often wriggle myself from school early to help Papi.
From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads
Teo wriggles down into the warmth of the duvet and snuggles into his mother.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
When a nematode wriggles around a petri dish, what’s going on inside a tiny roundworm’s even tinier brain?
From Scientific American ● Aug. 21, 2023
The pain is in the waiting, for however long that may be, to see how "Strange New Worlds" wriggles the Enterprise out of this bind.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2023
For example, a photon can be polarized so that the electric field in it wriggles vertically, horizontally, or both ways at the same time—at least until it’s measured.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 20, 2022
He shuts down the saw and wriggles through the raw hole, up the ladder behind it, and into the garret.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
A child wriggled screaming out of her father's arms, just after the pope said "Peace be upon you" and the avenue fell silent.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
Forty years ago in February, Jackson wriggled free of her father Joe Jackson’s stifling management with the release of “Control.”
From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2026
Servin remembered her daughter as a bubbly toddler with piercing blue eyes who wriggled with delight at the sight of Elmo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
She said she slipped his grip, wriggled free and got away.”
From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2025
They grew amazingly fast—so fast that their skin split open every few days and they wriggled out of it—“just as a person,” she noted, “pulls off a shirt over his head.”
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
“Before you know it, white worms are wriggling and swarming in every garbage bag and along the walls and floors and underlids of every trash can.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
If you are wriggling in the gigantic, sticky net of grief that is our national gloom, falling in with “The Pitt” may not seem like the right medicine for this moment.
From Salon ● Jan. 8, 2026
They milled in the room to music between sessions with partners, shaking off awkwardness by wriggling their arms, swinging their hips, jumping or full-on dancing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2025
Over a period of 20 years, he trained the programme's string of guide dogs, often appearing on TV surrounded by wriggling puppies.
From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2024
He twisted round like lightning, all wet and slimy as he was, wriggling like an eel, biting and scratching like a cat.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
